PSU's 2012 recruiting class gets even bigger

Joey O'Connor, a highly-rated offensive tackle from Colorado, committed to Penn State on Wednesday.

York, PA -
Penn State has been busy picking up linemen recruits in the past week.

The haul started last weekend when under-the-radar defensive tackles Derek Dowrey from Virginia and Austin Johnson from New Jersey received scholarship offers and verbally committed soon after.

It got even better on Wednesday when highly-regarded offensive tackle Joey O'Connor from Colorado gave the Nittany Lion staff his word.

Penn State now has 11 members for its class of 2012 and may be just about done on the offensive and defensive lines.

O'Connor, a 6-foot-5, 285-pound road grader, is the biggest splash of the three recent pickups. He was a first-team all-state pick as a high school junior and is ranked No. 105 on ESPN's top 150 national prospects.

He chose Penn State over Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Tennessee, Colorado and others.

"The thing that sets him apart is he never gives up," said Cory James of Scout.com. "It's not just that, 'I'm bigger than you and I'm going to get you out of the way.' It's more like, 'I'm going to push you back and get you 20 or 25 yards down the field before the whistle blows.'"

Penn State offensive line coach Bill Kenney was in charge of O'Connor's recruiting, just like he was when Penn State grabbed top-grade offensive tackle Ryan Nowicki out of Arizona in January.

Meanwhile, the Lions' other two recent pickups may be more wait-and-see products.

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The most intriguing is Johnson, a 6-4, 275-pounder from St. Augustine Prep in Richland, N.J. He also claimed scholarship offers from Boston College, Rutgers and Syracuse.

"He's a very good prospect," said Mike Farrell of Rivals.com. "He's super athletic and could be a big (defensive) end or grow into an average-size tackle. He started to earn some offers, but he didn't get to camps and got his film out late.

"I think Johnson has a chance, two or three years down the road, to be someone you say, 'Wow' about."

Dowrey, though, could make a more immediate impact.

He is 6-3 and 280 pounds and is from John Handley High in Winchester, Va. He had impressive tackle stats on the defensive line last year, but his main upside hinges on his relentlessness and run-stuffing ability inside.

His two other biggest scholarship offers were from West Virginia and East Carolina.

"He plays with anger, very aggressive," Farrell said of Dowrey. "He's closer to his ceiling right now than Austin is. Penn State wanted a guy, maybe, they could plug in right away."

Penn State already has commitments on the defensive line from New York five-star stud Jarron Jones, New Jersey's Jamil Pollard, Baltimore's Brian Gaia and Brent Wilkerson from Hyattsville, Md.

Other commitments on the offensive side are Pennsbury tackle J.J. Denman and Ohio guard/center Anthony Stanko.

Next up for the Lions could be Valley View linebacker Nyeem Wartman from Archbald. He is listed at 6-2 and 230 pounds and has offers from around the Big East, plus Florida and Illinois.

"He's very athletic and covers a lot of space," Farrell said. "We got him rated as a middle-of-the-road type of guy because there are still some questions about his straight-out speed and size.

"But I know a lot of schools covet Wartman because they think he's just starting to play his best football." fbodani@ydr.com; 771-2104